The present invention provides a method and apparatus for manufacturing electrical harnesses of the type widely used to interconnect electronic circuits, and particularly those types of circuits which are of relatively high density having contact points which are on close spacings. Electronic packages frequently employ contact points in the form of contact pins or posts in arrays spaced apart on centers such as 0.050 or 0.100 inches. To accommodate this density, connectors have been designed to mate directly on such centers through the use of plastic housings having passages mounting terminals on such centers. Typically, the terminals employed include a front-end having spring contact fingers adapted to engage the contact pins or posts and a rear end adapted to be terminated to electrical wire. Connectors may have numbers of terminals and wires ranging from a single terminal and wire up to as many as 30 terminals and wires carried in a common housing. The high density of such packaging virtually orders the use of very fine and flexible electrical wire. The term "small or fine" can be considered to embrace wire having an outer diameter that is on the order of between 0.025 and 0.075 inches. Typically, such wire is comprised of stranded copper conductors, frequently seven in number, covered over by an extruded sheath of insulating material such as polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, or materials having similar characteristics. Such wire is made to be flexible so that it may be suitably bent or flexed in use or installation without breaking. This characteristic of being small and flexible makes such wire difficult to handle, particularly as regards a cut or sheared loose end which needs to be positioned and terminated for use in a harness.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 945,588 filed Dec. 23, 1986 and entitled "Apparatus and Method for Connectors of Varying Dimensions," a connector is disclosed having the characteristics of the aforementioned connector and utilized for the purpose discussed. The connector of the pending application is terminated by a mechanism which positions the connector and terminals relative to an operator who feeds the sheared and loose ends of the wire one at a time for termination. A suitable wire guide is employed to assist the operator in such activity. Experience with this operation and with the limits upon productivity implicit in the handling of small and fine flexible wires serves as a background to the present invention method and apparatus.